EL CAJON  It was just before mid-day Friday when Dennis Rohman interrupted a tour of the P2K Range he manages to illustrate a point about today’s new shooters.

Rohman pointed to Mike Daoud, who was joined at the range by his mother, Rita, his sister, Mariann, and his son, Hayden, 3. While Daoud and his sister, Mariann, planned to shoot a couple of his pistols, young Hayden and his grandma were going to watch from a safe distance on the hill the truck and crane activity at the adjacent Hester’s Granite Pit. The construction activity would serve as a sort of day care while the pistol range provided a safe place for Daoud and his sister to fire weapons.

“This is my first time back here in 15 years, but Mariann wants to buy a pistol, so she wanted to try these out,” Daoud said.

His sister has never owned a gun or shot one, but she received a gift certificate and felt it was time to try it. She said the gun will be for protection and for recreation.

“You’re perfect for our National Shooting Sports Foundation First Shots program,” Rohman told Mariann. “It’s a two-hour program where new shooters get to shoot a shotgun, rifle and pistol. Everyone else in the class is new to shooting, so everyone is taught safety first.”

Rohman isn’t quite sure of the exact formula he used to produce such a phenomenon, but the P2K Range is attracting more and more families. He believes it started with the hiring of young shooters like Olympic hopeful Susan Sledge, a USA Shooting Team member, and many other young men and women to run the range and the expanded pro shop. They combined to turn the shooting range into a family affair.

How popular has P2K become? Lines grew so long to shoot on weekends before hunting season that Rohman invested in 30 pager-blinkers, the kind used at popular restaurants. On some days, waiting time for the all-indoor shooting lanes that stretch to 100 yards has reached four hours. He has installed Wi-Fi and TVs in the pro shop to keep folks happy during the long waits.

“We don’t like to have to do that, but it proves we must be doing something right to attract that many people,” Rohman said.

P2K Range remains under the aegis of the nonprofit club, the San Diego County Fish & Game Association, which was incorporated in 1923. Rohman recently authored an eight-page history and synopsis of the range in order to apply for the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s prestigious Five-Star Range status, given to only 17 ranges in the U.S., none in California. Rohman detailed how the range went through several stages of growth spurts and declines, the latter due to an aging population of avid shooters, negative portrayals of all shooting by some liberal media and an ultra-liberal California Legislature that through the years has passed laws restricting gun ownership and impacting outdoor sports.

But today, with Rohman entering his seventh year as general manager, P2K Range has 3,500 members, a 1,500-member increase from six years ago. Rohman said his branding of P2K being, “Everybody’s place to shoot,” isn’t just a marketing mantra, but a state of mind by all who work and shoot there. He and his staff have changed the customer base that was mostly white males over 60 and retired to a more youthful, diverse group of shooters. Rohman, who is a member of a prestigious national peer group of shooting range operators, has been told that the positive change in demographic at his range is unparalleled in the country.